Create a separate sheet for each category in a column

[ghost]

Sometimes I have a single sheet with a few different categories in a certain column, but I want multiple sheets, one for each category.

I can do this by hitting Shift-F, then pressing Enter on the first category, then returning to the frequency sheet, and pressing Enter on the second category, and so on...

Is there a quicker way to do this?

[saulpw]

Everything is possible with the magic of Python! :)

I think something like this should work:

@FreqTableSheet.api
def freq_subsheets(sheet, rows):
    for r in rows:
        vs = copy(sheet.source)
        vs.name += "_" + valueNames(r.discrete_keys, r.numeric_key)
        vs.rows = copy(r.sourcerows)
        yield vs

FreqTableSheet.addCommand('g'+ENTER, 'open-rows', 'for vs in freq_subsheets(selectedRows): vd.push(vs)')

(It's important to put the push, selectedRows in the execstr itself (along with any cursor* or input()), as various things like the cmdlog and menu system look into the execstr for their functionality.)

[edited to include @DAVIDWALES improvements below]

[saulpw]

Another possibility is go for open-rows; does that make more sense to anyone?

[ghost]

It's been said that 'a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds', so perhaps I have a little mind... But if we did go for open rows, would we also change DirSheet and XlsxSheet to use go to open multiple sheets?

And if we're using go to open multiple sheets, would we then use o to open single sheets?

Looking at the help text, open-row is Enter across a few different sheet types, while open-rows is zEnter, and dive-* is g?Enter.
This seems to be consistent at least.

However, although my help text suggests that open-rows is zEnter for DirSheets, I think the help text is wrong, because gEnter is definitely used here.

If we ensure that open-rows in DirSheet and XlsxSheet are changed to use zEnter, then we can keep gEnter for dive-*, and Enter for open-row, and everything should be consistent? (Or vice versa, swapping g and z.)

I'm also thinking about how g usually means 'make it BIGGER' and z usually means 'make it sᴍᴀʟʟᴇʀ', so if we consider that if Enter is open-row, is it bigger or smaller to open-rows, or to dive-*?

I don't really mind what the shortcut is, so long as it's consistent! 😄

[saulpw]

Okay, I am thinking that open-row, open-rows-multisheet, and open-rows should all be generic commands on the basic TableSheet, and then they'll be consistent by design. We need a better name than open-rows-multisheet though. open-rows-each? any ideas?

[ghost]

I'm assuming that open-rows-multisheet means 'open each row as a separate sheet, while open-rows means 'open a single sheet with all selected rows'?

Perhaps open-rows-sheets?

[saulpw]

okay, we can add open-rows-sheets as a possibility too. It's a bit of a mouthful though :)